A Wolf's Oath (18 page)

“
What about telling her what she really is? Can I tell her
that?”

“
No. Her mind has removed that information for a reason, she
has to come into that knowledge on her own when her mind is
prepared to deal with it.”

“
But there are wolves everywhere here. She won’t be able to
escape that.”

“
Well then I suggest you keep her confined to an area within
the estate where others can’t tell her what happened.”

“
I don’t like the idea of locking her away. She was trapped in
a room when I found her.” His mind began to work trying to find a
solution to the problem. “Could I take her away from here? Take her
somewhere where there aren’t wolves everywhere?”

“
That’s another idea. I would suggest taking her somewhere
where the surroundings are vaguely similar to those of her home. It
may help.”

“
I want to see her now,” he informed the doctor.

“
You have been in here with me for long enough now. As long as
you understand exactly what’s wrong with her then I don’t see any
reason that I should keep you here.”

“
Thank you doctor.”

“
You’re welcome, remember if you have any questions then bring
them to me.”

“
I’ll remember that.” He smiled before leaving the office and
walking the short distance that separated the doctor’s office from
the infirmary. He eased open the door and grinned as he watched
Dylan unsuccessfully try to braid her sister’s hair while Wyatt
tried to explain the differences between two stuffed toys which to
Sebastian's eyes looked identical. Erica endured their play with a
wide smile on her face, easily talking to them and hope flared
within him. Though he had told her siblings that they could only
see her on the condition that they told Erica nothing about her
life before the accident or who she was, the familiar way that she
interacted with them made him hope that she had remembered
something.

She raised them, that has to be something hard to
forget.

“
Hey there, aren’t you going to come in?” she called upon
seeing him standing at the door.

His smile widened as he walked into the room. “Come on guys,
that’s enough. Leave Erica alone, Ryan is waiting for you at the
end of the corridor, go on.”

“
Can’t we stay just a little longer?” Dylan pleaded.

“
No. Go on you’ve got to eat dinner.”

They dragged their feet but eventually left the room, leaving
Sebastian and Erica alone.

“
Were they any trouble?” he questioned moving to sit on the
edge of her bed.

Her hands reached up to her hair and she began trying to
disentangle the knots that Dylan had tied into her hair as she
tried to braid the strands. “No they were lovely. They drew me a
get well card.” She tilted her head in the direction of the hand
made card, wincing as her hair became even more knotted.

“
Turn around and let me do it,” he counselled.

She hesitated a moment before doing as he asked and handing
the long wealth of her hair over to the stranger’s care. His hands
were surprisingly gentle as he carefully finger combed the knots
out. He worked in silence and though she couldn’t remember him, she
felt comforted by his mere presence. “Sebastian?”

“
You remembered my name.” He beamed pleased with this turn of
events.
Maybe she’ll get better a lot
quicker than I thought, she seemed to remember Dylan and Wyatt and
she knows my name.

“
Of course I did, you’re one of the few people I’ve seen while
lying here. Besides apparently you and I are engaged, I should know
your name if we’re meant to be getting married one day.” Her
explanation of events dimmed his hopes slightly.

“
Did you want to ask me something?”

“
Well yes.” She hesitated a moment struggling to ask her
question. “Those kids…”

“
Dylan and Wyatt?”

“
Yes. Are they ours?”

His dimmed hopes were dashed by her question. “No, they’re
not. You and I don’t have any children. Dylan and Wyatt are your
siblings.”

“
Oh, well that would explain why the resemblance between us. I
didn’t know and I thought it would be really terrible if they were
actually my kids and I couldn’t remember them. I didn’t want to let
them know just in case.”

“
Well you don’t need to worry about that anymore, I hope your
concerns have been put to rest. Your hair is fine now.”

Her hair now free of his gentle hands she turned to look at
the man that she had apparently agreed to marry. She evidently had
good taste in men if he was anything to go by and though she hadn’t
spent much time in his company since she had woken, she felt
instinctively safe around him. “What happened to me Sebastian? No
one seems to be willing to tell me anything.”

“
The doctor says that telling you things about your life before
the accident will only impede your recovery. I want you to get
better.”

“
Look, at the very least I deserve to know how I ended up like
this. Is that so much to ask?”

Yes,
he thought remembering the
brutality that surrounded her fall. Unwilling to lie to his mate,
he told a partial truth. “You fell from a great height and hit your
head. There was a lot of bleeding and when you woke you couldn’t
remember anything.”

“
Now that wasn’t so hard was it?” She smiled.

“
No it wasn’t.”
More lies. Maybe I
should try and make a profession out of lying if I’m going to be
doing it so much.

“
Did the doctor say when I could go home?”

“
There’s nothing wrong with you physically.”

“
Does that mean we can leave now?” She pulled the sheet
covering her as though she were going to leave the bed, but
Sebastian pulled the duvet back into place.

“
There are a few things I want to sort out before you leave
here.”

“
Like what?”

“
Accommodation.”

“
We don’t have anywhere to live?” she demanded shocked by the
revelation.

“
Of course we do. What short of mat–” He stopped short as he
realised that he had made a mistake. Erica had apparently not
noticed his accidental slip of the tongue as she stared at him
waiting for him to finish his sentence. He coughed before
continuing. “I wouldn’t be a very good fiancé if I didn’t have
anywhere for us to live after we married. The problem is that there
are too many people here that may unwillingly tell you things that
will inhibit your recovery. The doctor suggested I take you away
somewhere, think of it as a holiday.”

“
Oh.”

“
There are a few details that I need to take care of before we
can go.” He smiled but found that she didn’t return the gesture.
Her eyes were downcast and a frown marred her features. “Is there
something wrong sweetheart?”

“
You’re just being so nice to me.”

Cupping her chin he lifted her head so that their eyes met.
“Of course I’m being nice what would you expect from the one you’re
going to spend your life with?”

“
I’m sorry for this. I can’t remember anything about us,
nothing at all and you’re willing to drop everything just so the
chances for my recovery might get a little better. I heard some of
the doctors talking.” He froze, scared as to what she might have
overheard. “They said some people never recover. What if I never
remember?”

He sighed in relief, hesitantly pulling her against him. She
didn’t struggle against his embrace, instead relaxing against him
and he held her tighter in response to her unconditional trust. “If
that happens then it happens. I don’t want you putting too much
pressure on yourself. We’ll make new memories
sweetheart.”

“
And if I forget those?”

“
I have no intention of letting you get hurt like this again,
but if you were to forget the new memories that we made then we
would make new ones just like before.”

“
You know with words like that Sebastian it’s becoming pretty
clear why I fell in love with you.”

He froze at the confession, feeling slightly guilty for his
necessary deception.
You didn’t love me
before you lost your memories sweetheart, but you were coming to
care for me. And though it might make me a bad person I’m going to
use this time as an opportunity to have you fall in love with me
without having to fight against your hostility. When you do
eventually get your memories back sweetheart – when, not if – I
hope you don’t hold this time against me.
He pulled her closer to his body content to simply hold her
for the moment.

Chapter
Nineteen

The moment Sebastian stepped out of the infirmary, leaving
Erica resting, he was greeted by a hard slap to his cheek. A low
growl rose in his throat as he turned to look at his assailant. A
small woman with dark hair stared angrily at him, her chest rising
and falling quickly in her state of agitation. Her cheeks were
flushed and her hazel eyes blazed with fury though he couldn’t
think what he had done to earn such a venomous look. He easily
remembered the petite brunette as a friend of Erica's and he
frowned in confusion at her actions.

“
What was that for?” he snarled angrily. Anna chose not to
respond verbally, instead slapping Sebastian hard on the other
cheek. Her arm rose as if to hit him a third time and he quickly
circled her wrist within his hand to prevent her from completing
the action. “I asked you a question and I think you’ll find that it
is the polite thing to answer with words rather than hits. The
first two caught me off guard, I won’t allow a third, especially
when I have no idea what I’ve done to earn them.”

“
You deserve all those hits and more after what you did to Eric
you bastard. Don’t think that I’m going to keep quiet about things
either. I’m going to tell her the truth about how she ended up like
this!” she shouted.

As the loud words reached his ears, Sebastian's eyes quickly
darted to the closed door of his mate’s room. “Will you keep your
voice down, Erica is sleeping and after all she’s been through she
needs to rest if she’s going to recover.”

Anna smiled, but the simple movement of her lips was
worrying. “Good,” Anna shouted loudly. “She needs to hear this. I’m
not going to let you take advantage of her memory loss. It’s
because of you and your stupid claiming that she got hurt and
you’re acting as though it isn’t.”

Sebastian’s grip on her wrist tightened and he pulled her
away from the infirmary door, along the empty corridor until he was
far enough away that Erica wouldn’t be able to overhear this
conversation should she wake. She might not remember that she was a
wolf but her senses were unlikely to have been affected, meaning
that she would still have the superior hearing that was a
characteristic of their people. He couldn’t afford for his mate to
have any doubts about him, things might become difficult if she
began to mistrust his intentions.

“
Just what is your problem?” he hissed, finally releasing his
hold on the small woman.

“
You are,” she responded, shoving at his chest. He was unmoved
by her demonstration of strength and so she pushed again, growling
when he still remained unaffected.

Stepping out of her reach to ensure she didn’t try to harm him
and accidentally hurt herself Sebastian sighed heavily.
Today just isn’t my day. Erica's amnesia I could
just about handle, but this is pushing it.
“I don’t know just what you think I’ve done to annoy you, but
I would appreciate it if you stopped using violence against me. I
don’t like it.”

“
I can’t believe you’re acting as though you’re innocent when
Eric is lying in the infirmary with amnesia. This is your fault. At
least take responsibility for it.”

“
I’m doing everything I can to help her recover, the same
obviously can’t be said of you. You know that she isn’t meant to be
told what happened in her life before the accident. I made sure
that everyone within the estate knew. Even if you just got here
recently, someone must have told you at the door. Don’t go around
screaming things like that, you’ll just make things worse for her.
I’m doing all I can to help her recover, but don’t try and lay all
the blame for what happened to Erica at my door.”

“
What are you talking about?”

“
Don’t try and play the innocent, you know very well what you
did. The first night of the full moon, you came to Erica's home to
talk to her,” he sneered. “When we eventually went back inside both
you and Erica were gone. Before you came, she didn’t say anything
about running away. I could practically smell that she was prepared
to accept me but you must have said something that made her run
away.”

“
Did she actually say something to you or are you just looking
for someone to put the blame on so that you won’t feel so
guilty.”

“
We’re mates it’s only natural that I wanted to claim her. You
on the other hand are meant to be her friend, you’re meant to want
what’s best for her. Can you honestly say that your actions that
day were in Erica's best interest?”